Michael Amir Murillo, defender of the Panama National Team, valued the importance of the next two friendly matches against top CONCACAF rivals.
Murillo spoke yesterday with the media in the conference room of the Rommel Fernández Stadium, at a time when the group is preparing to face the United States National Team this Saturday, October 12, in their first friendly, and then on Tuesday, October 15. October against Canada, in two preparation matches for the FIFA date in October.
“In the end we always want to represent the team well in whatever matches,” said the defender of Olympique de Marseille, of French soccer.
“We always want to compete, we always want to win, and the United States is a difficult rival, who we know will come to pressure us and try to beat us, just like we will beat them,” he added.
Panama is preparing to play as a visitor against an American squad that has a new coach in the Argentine Mauricio Pochettino and that will surely come with great enthusiasm, after losing in its last match against the Panamanian team 2-1 in the Copa América match. played in Atlanta, Georgia.
The match will be played this Saturday starting at 8:00 pm at the Q2 Stadium, in Austin, Texas.
When asked about the continuous evolution of Panamanian soccer and the reason behind the departure of so many Panamanian soccer players abroad and to increasingly better leagues, Murillo pointed to a fundamental reason: mentality.
“The mentality of the Panamanian soccer player has changed a lot,” he highlighted.
“What we have been doing has been very noticed and now 95% of the players play abroad and the majority of us are starters, so that speaks a lot about the mentality we have now. We know that we have the potential, but sometimes that is not enough to arrive and make a difference,” he expressed.
The right back of the National Team clarified that all the players who go out and represent Panama have a responsibility.
“In the end, what we all want is to put Panama in a better place in terms of football,” he said.
The historic representative of Panama in the last 2018 World Cup in Russia has 77 games on his resume with the Senior National Team shirt and a total of 9 goals scored.
The National Team has already carried out two of the four scheduled training sessions at the Rommel Fernández Stadium, in the absence of work today, Tuesday and tomorrow, Wednesday.
The team began its preparation last Sunday at the Rommel Fernández Gutiérrez Stadium, with the arrival of the first players who saw action abroad.
For the first day of training, a total of 10 players joined, with the incorporation of guests Gabriel Brown, from Arabe Unidos, and Miguel Pérez, from CD Plaza Amador as guests to train.
Players Irving Gudiño and Moisés Veliz, from Tauro FC, were also added to this number, who are concentrated and also invited to train, with the option of being called up, if the coach makes the choice.
In the case of yesterday’s training, the news was the additions of the players Fidel Escobar, José Córdoba, Cristian Martínez, Jiovany Ramos, César Blackman, José Fajardo and Édgar Yoel Bárcenas.
The group is expected to be complete for training tomorrow, Wednesday, in the absence of the players who play soccer in the United States, who would be joining the team this Thursday directly in Austin, Texas.
The team will be traveling to Austin this Thursday on a direct flight to continue their preparation, before their first friendly against the USA.
